South America's Most Beautiful City

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February 4th 2016

Published: February 29th 2016

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Delek Delek

Streets Of Getsemani

Just as colourful as the streets in the old city.

Having not taken a flight for three-and-a-half months, I was now on my second one in a week. When you can save yourself a 12-hour bus ride for an extra £7, it's a no-brainer.
Managing to finally escape the screaming toddler on my flight as I walked out of the plane; as I felt the sweet humidity in the air and saw the palm trees blowing in the wind, I immediately knew that I would like this place and was excited about beginning the 'proper hot' part of my trip. This was what I was looking forward to the most - beaches and parties await!

And oh boy, Cartagena is as beautiful as everything I had read and heard about the place. From the colourful colonial buildings, the balconies of bougainvillea, the exotic Caribbean climate to the horse-drawn carriage rides - you could say that it's a somewhat romantic spot.
Which means that it is full of tourists. But a different type of tourist than we had gotten used to seeing - these were older tourists, of the package tour kind. It's the kind of place that you'd imagine your parents enjoying very much.
And where there are tourists, there

Playa Blanca

Beach where we spent the day on my birthday.

are many people peddling anything they can at you. It was something I hadn't experienced in a while (on this scale, anyway), so I found it quite annoying.

Waiting for me at the hostel was Teo - it was good to see him again, the first time I have seen him since Sybe, Fleur and I left him behind in Sucre. After Cartagena, we'll be travelling together again for a little while, heading to Carnaval in Barranquilla before continuing on to Santa Marta, Taganga and the Parque Tayrona. Partying and beaching on the Caribbean coast of Colombia - this had now become the leg of the trip I was most excited about.
It was a salt flat reunion (minus Nicola and Chris) - Sybe and Fleur arrived the next day. It was great to see them again and the old, good times rolled as we laughed, played Scum and ate guacamole.

This was done amongst the sightseeing in Cartagena we did of course.
Established by the Spaniards in 1533, it was their main port of the Caribbean coastand where they stored most of their plundered treasures. As a result, it was the target of pirates and was besieged five times - once by the

Fruit Seller In Colourful Attire

Outside the Iglesia de Santo Domingo.

British sea captain Francis Drake in 1586. This led the Spanish to fortify the city by building a wall around it - which still stands today. Ever since I first laid eyes on Dubrovnik, I have had a fascination with walled cities and this only added to Cartagena's charm. A walk around the walls is usually always pleasant and gives you a unique perspective when viewing the city.
The Spanish also built a fortress here that was never taken - the imposing Castillo de San Felipe de Barajas, which still stands today and was never taken. Its maze of subterranean tunnels was fun to explore and the views from the top of it were impressive. We watched a video explaining the history of the fortress - but it was all in Spanish and I was far too tired and hot to be able to follow the story.
Of the other sights that we saw, the only other one worth mentioning was the rather disappointing and expensive Palacio de Inquisicion on Plaza de Bolivar. Expecting to see more exhibits about the various ways in which heretics were tortured and executed during The Inquisicion, instead we got a more general overview of

Street Art

In Getsemani, the neighbourhood just outside the old city walls.

Cartagena's history, which was all in Spanish. I can read Spanish better than I can hear or speak it but it was still too much hard work - and didn't really help that the exhibits weren't very interesting.
Otherwise there isn't too much else to say about Cartagena - the pictures say it all for me.

What I can say is that there is an unmistakeable Afro-Caribbean vibe to the place, unlike anything I have experienced in South America so far. And as well as speaking fast, they also speak with a Caribbean accent here too - making understanding their Spanish almost impossible. I have enough trouble deciphering English spoken with Caribbean accents.
I can also say that Cartagena has been by far the most expensive place I have visited in Colombia. Something perhaps not surprising given the amount of cruise-ship tourists here and the gleaming apartment towers in the distance.
As a result, accommodation prices even for hostels here are expensive - which is why we ended up at Casa Nativa. An old, tired hostel, it was pretty dirty, but adequate. And most importantly, the dorms had air conditioning - a must in the oppressive heat of the

Calle Tumbomuertos

The street our hostel was on in Cartagena.

northern Caribbean coast.

It was the day before my birthday but since Sybe and Fleur were travelling back to Santa Marta the next evening, we decided to have some celebratory drinks a night early.
After a few beers at the hostel, we continued on at KGB Bar, a Soviet-themed bar that was actually pretty well decorated. The laughs kept on rolling - it was awesome to be spending my birthday with new, yet good friends.
Teo and I then continued on to a rooftop bar in the Plaza de los Coches which was packed - but packed with mostly guys. We decided to cut our losses and skip the sausage fest by returning back to the hostel.

For my actual birthday, we had a beach day! We signed up for a tour that took us to one of the best beaches near Cartagena on the peninsula of Baru - Playa Blanca.
It was a beautiful beach with turquoise waters and beautiful white sand - but unfortunately, such a beautiful place is bound to become overcrowded and over-commercialised. Our "private" beach wasn't really that private - we were merely at one of several establishments lined up along the entire

Balconies Of Bougainvillea

Another attractive feature of the buildings here in Cartagena.

length of the beach. Though far from being completely saturated by other beach-goers, it was hard to shake the feeling that this beach would be absolutely perfect if it was left completely undeveloped and if we had the place all to ourselves. There were also loads and loads of people trying to sell you stuff along the beach from stones, to massages, to fruit salads - a bit irritating when you're just trying to enjoy a relaxing day on the beach. The water was a tad too salty too.
But I suppose that you can't really complain - in such a beautiful and relatively-easy-to-access place, you have to accept that people want to go there and that the relatively impoverished locals want to make a living off the people who visit.
One thing we could complain about however was the organisation of the tour itself. It was basically run on 'South American time' and you never knew quite what was happening and when. On a tour, the first thing you need to get right is ensuring that the tour runs as on-time as possible and that your clients know what exactly is going on at all times. The last straw

Catedral

Cartagena's main church is pretty at night.

was when we were told we'd be leaving the beach for Cartagena in five minutes, only to leave an hour-and-a-half later. Sybe and Fleur then ended up missing their bus to Santa Marta as a result. At least the tour company managed to catch the bus up for them - it was the least they could do, although the whole thing could have been avoided if we had left on time, as we were supposed to.
It made for a fairly abrupt farewell - it was awesome to see Sybe and Fleur again for a couple of days and they will be missed. I will hopefully be able to visit them in Holland this summer!

The tour was part of a general trend here - for such a popular destination, service is appallingly slow and terrible. Workers oftern look like they can't be bothered and the general demeanour of the locals is far from the friendliness that I experienced in Medellin.
As well as the Playa Blanca tour, there was a cafe we frequented because they sold acai. It promoted itself as a "slow food" cafe - and they weren't wrong. It's like they got their excuse in early

Colourful Cartagena

Another typical street in the old town of Cartagena.

with the name and the slogan. We also stopped to get some bubble tea at a place specialising in it - only for them to get all of our orders completely wrong. They also didn't have half their menu. And the tea wasn't really the authentic Taiwanese version that I was used to, which was disappointing, although it was still nice. The delicious cake we shared between however, just about made up for it.

Perhaps showing my age, I was quite happy to just have a quiet birthday night - but when the Australian, Canadian and German hostel dwellers that I was drinking with got word that it was my birthday, I then had to do a few shots of aguardiente and had my arm twisted to make a night of it. As I should, I suppose.
We ended up at a New Orleans-themed bar as well as grabbing a bite to eat, the aguardiente and the beers I drank at the hostel were now in full-effect and I ordered a round of tequila shots for the table. And wow, shots here are huge - shots in Colombia are almost always double shots. We got a shock when we got the

Streets Of Cartagena

Beautiful.

bill - the shots were 25,000COP each! Almost London prices!
Afterwards, we ended up at the other rooftop club in Plaza de los Coches - which was disappointingly empty.
I was tired to begin with and the vibe of the place wasn't making things better so Teo and I decided to call it a night. Not before we were accosted by local police looking for bribes however. Even after searching the lining of my wallet, they didn't find anything so were then free to go.

Proof-reading this blog entry, it seems to come across as one long list of complaints. Yes, many things left a lot to be desired but I still thought that Cartagena was a wonderful place and that overall, I still enjoyed my stay there. Oh, and it really is the most beautiful city in South America.

Hasta luego,
Derek

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